The Major Arcana runs as a story from zero to twenty-one. The Fool steps off the cliff; the Magician and High Priestess supply outer and inner tools; the Empress and Emperor supply nurture and structure; the Hierophant supplies tradition. The first third is about acquiring equipment.
The middle stretch — Lovers through Temperance — is about choice and consequence, and it contains the cards people fear. The Tower and Death are the two great involuntary cards, and both describe removal rather than punishment. What follows them, the Star and the Sun, is the deck's argument that collapse is survivable.
The last third is integration: the Devil naming what binds you, the Moon naming what deceives you, and the World closing the loop, which the Fool then reopens. Learn the story and you can place any Major card by asking what comes before and after it.